If you were thinking that eventually the long long of bad things happening to Google Stadia was eventually going to run out, well, you’re probably right, but the day is not today. Following the loss of its VP and head of product last spring and the closure of its internal games division at the top of the year, Stadia has now lost its director of games.
As ZDNet reports, Jack Buser had been on the Stadia project for more than five years and as the director of games had been responsible for recruiting developers and publishers to the platform and setting up those partnerships. But he’s moving elsewhere within Google now: He’ll be Google Cloud’s Director of Global Gaming Solutions, which might just be a hint about the company’s shifting ambitions and attention.
Google spun the move as a positive one, touting the fact that it’s now added 200 games to the platform; a rep for the company said Buser will “help open doors for broader strategic partnerships with customers across YouTube, Stadia, and more.” General Manager Phil Harrison will continue on to lead Stadia as it is now.
• Former Stadia first-party developers claim Google balked at the investment required to make first-party development work
• Google’s Stadia monetizes game engagement, pressuring studios to keep players around
• Stadia’s developer marketing lead insists that the platform is doing fine
• Stadia’s vice president and head of product quietly leaves Google
• Google Stadia hypes up the addition of a search bar and other quality-of-life additions coming soon
• Insiders expose Google Stadia’s rushed release, poor hiring practices, and stymied studios
• MMO Business Roundup: Stadia’s and Bethsoft’s class-actions, Epic’s lockbox settlement, and CDPR’s DMCA takedowns
• MMO Business Roundup: Stadia’s bungle, Axie Infinity’s $1.5M in-game property
• COVID-19 roundup: Game spending shoots up, Stadia Pro goes free, and GDC tries again
• Google Stadia apparently has offered insufficient incentives for devs on the platform
• Google Stadia is coming to more phones as its head of gamer experiences literally says, ‘This is fine’
• Google has fallen radio silent for 40 days after Stadia’s launch
• Google counters accusations that Stadia’s 4K quality was ‘exaggerated’
• Google Stadia’s launch day might have arrived, but the future of cloud gaming hasn’t
• Stadia holds an AMA that confirms a laundry list of features that won’t be available at launch
• Leaderboard: Are you all-in for Google Stadia?
• The Daily Grind: So, do you think Google’s Stadia will revolutionize gaming?
• Google is launching Stadia, a ‘game platform for everyone’ in a ‘new era of gaming,’ this year
